FWPA
Since moving back to Cowtown over three years after leaving in 1999, a few things have changed, like the installation of the now iconic piece of art known as “Intimate Apparel & Pearl Earrings.” I had driven past the Fort Worth Convention Center countless times over the years, but I didn’t see it really until a year ago, while on assignment. The name alone — quirky, mysterious, almost mischievous — made me want to know what it was all about.
Turns out, the sculpture was installed back in 2005, a few years after I’d left, and it’s become one of the city’s most whimsical landmarks. Created by New York–based sculptor Donald Lipski, it’s built from hundreds of cowboy hats arranged into a seven-foot-thick, twenty-eight-foot-long Texas Star. At first, it’s dazzling in its sheer scale, but the more you look, the more you realize each hat tells a story.
Some hats belonged to Texas luminaries — former Governor Rick Perry, President George H.W. Bush, movie legend Chill Wills, and even Garlene Tindell Parris, a 1936 trick-roping rodeo star. Parris didn’t just donate her own hats; she gathered dozens more from friends, family, and fellow Texans. It’s a sculpture rooted in history and community, a visual record of Fort Worth’s love for tradition.
Even local folks like Blake Moorman, a city employee and Arts Fort Worth board member, got involved. He donated a hat and marked it with symbols that mattered most to him — TCU, his fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha, Jubilee Theater, and UTA, according to an article on the city’s website. His hat ended up in the perfect spot, right under the star, where he could proudly point it out to visitors.
Looking back now, years after moving away, I realize how much the city has grown, but also how some things remain delightfully Texan. “Intimate Apparel & Pearl Earrings” isn’t just a sculpture — it’s Fort Worth itself, playful, proud, and full of stories waiting to be discovered.
